Swerve Strickland is grateful that he got to wrestle his hero Rey Mysterio one time in his career.
All Elite Wrestling‘s Swerve Strickland was a recent guest on The Cruz Show to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked who his favorite luchador of all time is, Strickland pointed to SmackDown’s Rey Mysterio and spoke about the match they had against each other at an Aro Lucha show in 2018.
“Rey Mysterio easily,” Swerve Strickland said. “I got to wrestle him too in Tennessee, and the day of it was just work. Like I’m just doing my job. And then afterward, I was like, I just wrestled my hero. It’s like you grew up reading comic books, and you got to actually face your favorite comic book in real life. I took the 619; he’s doing the head scissors.
“I was like, I feel like I’ve been wrestling you for my whole life because I’ve been watching you for so long. So our bodies just adapted so well, and the chemistry was just there. And the coolest thing was because he was signed with Lucha Underground with us as well at the time. But we never wrestled. So the night of, he was coming up to me and was like, ‘You’re someone I really wanted to wrestle for a long time now. So I’m glad we get to mix it up tonight.’ And that just took me out of it. I could retire the next day and be okay with that.”
When asked if moments like that in wrestling make him tear up a bit, Strickland says it doesn’t because he’s always focused on achieving something bigger than what he did the time before.
“No, because I look at everything like I’m trying to achieve something that’s bigger than what I did the time before,” Swerve Strickland said. “And that’s the way the industry is now. It’s becoming harder and harder because like everybody’s doing everything all at one time. It’s not like, oh, this is coming, and then in a couple of months, this is coming, and then a couple of months, this is coming.
“It’s almost like something impactful is happening in Japan, something impactful happening in Mexico, and then there’s weekly TV. There’s like seven wrestling shows on weekly TV. So something’s happening all at one time, all in different areas. So I feel like I’m running the race of myself now. Because I’m like, okay, well, what can I do that nobody in all these areas can pull off? So that’s why I don’t stop and tear up anymore. I just get some affiliates like that, and we keep moving forward. What else can we really accomplish out here that nobody can touch? I’m the only one that can do it.”
What do you make of Swerve Strickland’s comments? Did you ever see his match against Rey Mysterio in Aro Lucha? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit The Cruz Show with a link back to this article for the transcription.
